A French judge has decided Bank of France chief Mr Jean-Claude Trichet should go to trial over a bank scandal, clouding his prospects of becoming head of the European Central Bank, French daily Le Parisiensaid today.
Magistrate Mr Philippe Courroye, the man with the last word on an inquiry into suspected account-rigging at Credit Lyonnais in the early 1990s, decided there was sufficient evidence to implicate Mr Trichet and several others, the newspaper said.
This goes against a recommendation by state prosecutor Mr Jean-Pierre Dintilhac that Mr Trichet, 59, should not go to court.
The prosecutor can now set a date for the trial or appeal against the magistrate's decision in what would be interpreted as a political move to free Mr Trichet from his legal tangles, Le Parisiensaid.
Officials at the Bank of France were not immediately available to comment on the report.
Mr Trichet has been slated to replace Dutchman Mr Wim Duisenberg as president of the euro zone's Frankfurt-based central bank under a deal struck in 1998 to allot the job to a Frenchman after Mr Duisenberg's stint as first head of the new bank.
Mr Trichet was placed under investigation in 2000 on the basis that he was the head of the French Treasury in the early 1990s and thus in charge of keeping checks on state-owned companies, as Credit Lyonnais was at the time.